the more things change the less they stay the same
by fillinwhittynameHERE
Summary: the team is sent away to battle an alien race. when they return everything has changed.the story will be about the whole team but focus on batman and robin and robin's story will be different. i re-posted chapter 3 sorry for the problems
1. Chapter 1

It had been discovered that an alien race was coming to Earth. When was still unknown. The leaders of Earth gathered and decided their best option was to send the Justice League. If anyone could save them it was the Justice League.

The League agreed but quickly realized if they left who would protect Earth? The only solution they could come up with was to send young justice. So the plan was set. The team would leave on an expanded bioship, while traveling to the alien planet they would train as much as they could. They didn't know if it'd be enough but it was their only option.

Before they left the team was given only the highest of awards military and civilian alike. The team never questioned why they were getting the awards; they all knew the truth that no one wanted to say. They might not come back.

*Bruce's POV*

He knew that his boy, his robin may never come back. That's why watching them leave was the hardest thing in the world. He would give anything to go in his place, but he knew that he was needed here. He knew just how dangerous this mission was going to be, but he knew he would come back. All he could do is make sure Gotham was safe when he returned.

*8 year time skip*

It was time it had been 8 years, he had to come back or else he was going to go insane.

"Batman come quickly."

"What is so important, flash, that you can't handle it?"

"Jon said to come immediately. He said he had information on the team!"

That changed everything. He quickly came to the tower.

"What is it Jon?"

"We have detected M'gann's bioship nearing the atmosphere."

Bruce's heart leapt into his throat, his boy was coming home. That's when he realised something it couldn't be his boy no now it was his ELDEST boy. How was he going to tell his other kids? Jason, Tim, Stephine, Cassie, Terry, and little Matt. Bruce had adopted all of them except Terry and Matt. They were a product of project batman beyond* but were still his sons. There was no way he would treat them any differently especially after Clark & Conner.

Quickly all of the mentors met on the landing dock where the kids would be landing in only a few minutes. Suddenly superman, who had been looking at the sky, hurried to a spot a few feet away.

"What is it Clark?"

"It's the kids they're entering the atmosphere."

If anyone were to look at the landing dock they would see the mentors and the rest of the original seven craning to look at something invisible in the sky.

The air seemed to leave them as the ship landed. Out came six adults. A dark skinned man that was a little less than six feet with long blonde hair. He had on what appeared to be a wetsuit made of a dark blue color and had a lightning bolt in the center with a triton going through it. There was no mask hiding his eyes that spoke of wisdom and knowledge. A dark haired man, with the same blue eyes as superman, although you couldn't tell due to his domino mask, who was six foot exactly, his dark hair was cropped short, came out after him. He had a full body black suit with a white s-shield in the center that seemed to glow. Next came out a woman with blonde hair that went to her back in a braid and eyes that seemed to glow. She had on a black body suit with three orange tiger claws in the center and on her right shoulder was a green arrow poised as if flying through the air. Her mask was a domino with the eyes instead of white but orange tiger eyes. The eyes seemed so natural you would think the eyes were her own. After her was another woman with green skin and short, boy style, orange hair and orange eyes. She wore an all red shirt and skirt with a black x across the chest with a short blue cape. She wore no mask and her boots were black and led into black leggings that ended at her skirt. Then came a man with long flaming red hair. He wore a red body suit with a black lightning bolt in the center and black tinted red goggles over his eyes. His boots were black as well with lightning bolts and he wore gloves that were black. Finally another man, who was clearly the youngest, stepped out. He wore a black body suit with a blue bird in flight across his chest whose wings circled his arms to his fingertips. He wore black fingerless gloves and a black domino mask. On his shoulders were a robin, in yellow, red, and green, in flight and a bat in all black it seemed to blend into his shoulder with just a hint of justice league was stunned they didn't know what to expect when the kids came home but they hadn't thought they'd change this much. Flash, being his normal self, had to blurt out about their outfits. He summed up all their thoughts in four Words.

"What with the costumes?"

Surprisingly it was the redhead, who they knew was kid flash, who spoke.

"What did you expect us to stay kids forever?" As he looked around he started laughing, "You did didn't you?"

"Impulse!" The dark skinned boy, who they realized had to be aqualad, admonished.

"Impulse?"

"We all took on new names."

"What are they?"

"Impulse."

"Lightning triton."

"Kon-el." Superman looked up in shock at this.

"Tigress."

"Martian Mistress."

"And you?" They asked the last one.

"Nightwing."

"Ok I can sort of understand the others but why night wing?"

"When I was a kid my parents and I were a type of gymnasts. Someone once commented that when they saw us perform they looked for wings because that was the only way we could do those things."

"And the night part of it?"

"If you're looking for my father….."

"Yeh."

"You'll want to look at night. I mean he is the dark KNIGHT."

After a moment the newly dubbed impulse looked around and asked "so what'd we miss?"

*project batman beyond was a project made by was a project that took batman's DNA and infused it into a neo-Gotham (future Gotham) citizen. This caused that citizen's reproductive DNA to match batman's in hope that batman would live on. The boy that was created was terry McGinnis and his little brother Mathew. Terry eventually becomes batman. To know his story look up and watch the batman beyond episodes it was a good show.


	2. Chapter 2

"_So what'd we miss?"_

"Why don't we go to the hall to discuss this? I mean unless you guys want to talk about it in the middle of space." Said flash with a laugh

"Well," started impulse, "seeing as we've been gone….how long have we been gone?"

"8 years." The team looked at each other and everyone but lightning triton and nightwing yelled "8 years!" suddenly there was uproar, the members of the team, besides lightning triton and nightwing, started talking quickly.

"Enough," yelled nightwing, "we talked about this team. We all knew that a lot of time was going to pass while we were gone."

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have any family," retorted impulse, "oh my god wing I so didn't mean it like that."

"Yes you did but its ok imp. Truly it's ok I'm used to it."

"Why don't we go to the hall now?"

*in the hall of justice meeting room*

Everyone quickly took a seat and the league members saw that the team had some sort of seating arrangement premade for they all sat down without a word or even a glance.

"So," superman started but before he could finish nightwing spoke up a, "why don't you guys just ask us what you want to know."

"Well don't you want to know what's been going on in the world since you left?" wonder woman asked with a frown.

"Nightwing, m'gaan, and bio all worked together to connect to earth data streams to track and download all data pertaining to major earth events," started tigress. "That's a bunch of techy mumbo jumbo for they hacked the earth." finished impulse.

"Bio?" was the only thing flash could think to ask.

"Short for bioship. And is that really the first question, not 'you hacked earth' no you ask about the name of the alien spaceship, was it really smart to leave them in charge of the planet we hacked?" impulse directed the last of this to the other members of the team.

"Imp be nice."

"Sorry."

"I'm confused if you were getting feeds from earth then how didn't you know how long you were gone?" aquaman questioned.

"We could only connect to earth while we were stationary so we had to download everything we could whenever we were stopped. And we haven't stopped, I estimate, in the last 3 earth years. Except for right before we landed which is when we caught the newest data." Nightwing stated in an authoritative voice as if he couldn't believe they were asking such, in his opinion, dumb questions.

"Well then…how was…." "We won" kon-el cut in quickly.

"Well go on tell us more about what happened." Green lantern said with a wink and a smile.

"We traveled, we trained, we fought, we nearly died, we won, and we came home end of story." Kon-el said with a scowl.

"Come on," green lantern complained, "give us more details. It had to have been the coolest thing ever…. What?" lantern asked as he looked up and saw tigress and lightning triton physically holding kon-el back.

"You only need to know the general details nothing more. If you want to know about the enemy that's fine but we won't go in depth about what happened," Nightwing stated, "you can ask questions but we maintain the right to not answer."

"That's fair I guess." Superman said uncertainly.

"So how long did it take you to get there?"

"Roughly 3 years"

"So the battle took 2 years?"

"No the battle took 6 months before they were defeated."

"Then why did it take you so long to get home?"

"We were injured, there was spaceship rubble everywhere. Not to mention we had to look for captives, survivors. That took another 6 months not to mention we had to search their planet and gather information about their species."

"Why would you need to gather information about a now extinct species?"

"Because they were a species we hadn't seen before. They had a completely different style of fighting and war. We weren't going to pass up the chance for more knowledge. And who said they were extinct?"

"That was your job," Flash yelled, "you were supposed to wipe out the race that was trying to KILL us."

"No," nightwing said with venom, "our job was to defeat the enemy that was trying to kill us. But did you know that the planet was divided into two. That one part of the race had taken over another because they wanted to change their ways and lose their old beliefs so they took over a supposed NON-VIOLENT people. When we first came to the planet we integrated to learn about the people we were fighting. When we did that we learned who the enemy was and took them down. We helped those that had been enslaved and in exchanged they taught us their ways in hopes that we would use them to protect and care for others not in a form of violence. That was when we finished our new identities. And just so you know do to their advancements in technology we were able to upgrade bio and come back in six months."

The adults sat in silence. Before them were not the children they sent into space but adults who had seem and done a lot of things. They were changed people gone were the kids, gone was their little robin. The team looked at the adults and realization dawned on them.

"It must be a shock," nightwing said in a gentler voice than a few minutes ago, "you sent away your apprentices and expected to get them back. But that's not who we are entirely. We had to grow up so we could survive. We made these changes so that we could come home and be with you. We have changed but," he looks to his team members around him who all nod to him, "we are still your kids and we want to get to know you again because we realize we aren't the only ones who changed." He said the last part while looking at batman sadly.

"Well then I guess we'll just have to get to know each other better," suddenly superman stopped when he heard a strange beeping sound.

"Team we have a problem!" nightwing yelled while looking at a strange device on his arm.

"Sorry we will be back in a little while." Said impulse with a shrug. The team quickly beamed to the watch tower and boarded the bioship all before the adults knew what had happened.

*an hour later*

"We should've gone after them." Said a worried wonder woman.

"They're fine," said flash casually, "yeah we're fine." Said impulse who had just entered the meeting room.

"We got a mission from one of the neighboring planets that we had to take care of." Said lightning triton

"You help other planets?"

"Yes we realized that we couldn't train on our own so we would go to other planets and make friends with the locals. In exchange we gave them a communicator so that if they needed us they could call on us and we would come." Triton explained

"What if you were too far away to get there in time?"

"The communicators work as transporters as long as we're on bio. Basically the communicators give the info to bio who quickly 'beams' to that location. It's kind of like the transporters the league uses except on a larger scale." Nightwing explained

"Okay I think that's enough excitement for one night. So we were talking while you were gone and thought, if you were okay with it, you could stay with your mentors while you're getting used to being on Earth." The team looked at each other for a moment and then as one they nodded to lightning triton.

"That would be good as long as it isn't an inconvenience for you guys."

"Great and superboy I mean kon-el you are welcome to stay with me if you want." Superman offered

"That would be great thank you."

"Good then we will meet here tomorrow."

A/N:

Next few chapters will be about each team member on this first night back

Leave a review about how you want certain team member's relationships to go. I have a rough idea but I love getting new ideas.


	3. Chapter 3

**The More Things Change the Less They Stay the Same**

**Chapter 3**

**By: fillinwhittynameHERE**

_"Good then we will meet here tomorrow."_

"Hey kid, I mean, impulse let's head to my place. Maybe we can convince Iris to make your favorite, double cheeseburger."

"I'm a vegetarian." Impulse deadpanned.

"What?!" Flash nearly screamed.

"HAHAHA you should see the look on your face, I can't believe you believed me. Me a vegetarian, yeah right."

"Don't do that again." With that they 'beamed' to central city and then walked to Barry's house.

"Wally there's something you need to know. About two years after you guys left Iris was able to give birth. We now have five year old twins, Derek and Daphne."

"Well that explains why the house looks bigger."

"Well yeah we had mine and iris's room, the guest room, Derek's room, Daphne's room, and of course your room. Which by the way is exactly how you left it."

"You didn't have to keep my stuff in there but thank you."

"Let's head inside." With that they went in and Impulse got the first sight of the house of his childhood. As they entered the kitchen Wally realized that nothing had changed yet nothing had stayed the same either. The room was exactly as it always was except the walls were covered in little kid art work.

"Wally is that you?"

"Aunt Iris, look at you, you haven't changed a bit."

"Well you sure have. What happened to hating long hair?"

"Well there really isn't a barber shop in space so I kind of had to live with it unless I wanted it military style and it's kind of grown on me."

"Well let me make you some burgers. I'm assuming three a piece?"

"Actually one is fine for me, thank you."

"One but what about the speedster metabolism?"

"In space we ate different types of foods, and some times only a little bit at a time so I was able to gain control over my metabolism. So basically I use less energy and it lasts me longer."

"Why can't you and the kids have metabolisms like that? It would save so much money on the food bill."

"So I'm guessing the kids are speedsters too?"

"Yeah they are almost as fast as you are."

"Well I'm not so sure about that. You see I mastered my powers and I can tap into the speed force. I can also do everything you can and a little more."

"Wow, just wow. We should race so I can see how fast you've gotten."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea, but I have some things to do tonight so could we do it in the morning?" At this point both men had finished eating.

"Sure no problem, what reading?"

"Everyone on the team is studying old missions from the league. We try to learn as much as we can both about you guys and the enemies you face because you can never be too careful." Right as he finished speaking a strange beeping noise. Then impulse pulled out what looked to be a cross between a communicator and a cell phone.

"Impulse…..hey yeah we just finished eating…yeah ok…so 1200 at the hall got it….yeah see you there boss man…..later nightwing."

"Wait I thought kaldur was your leader?"

"When kaldur became leader it was only temporary. He and nightwing agreed that wing would become leader when he was ready. They decided that they would share leadership while we got used to nightwing leading and he slowly gave full command to wing. I think he gained control right before the big fight, it was a great test of his leadership I guess." Just then they heard shouting coming from the front door. Impulse just looked at Flash with a raised eyebrow.

"Derek, Daphne no more yelling." Flash shouted.

"Yes sir." They chorused together.

"Hey who are you, are you Wally, you are aren't you, that is so cool. We can hang out and play videogames and watch movies and eat junk food. And we can race, it'll be so cool, we can be like best friends and have our own secret hand shake and everything."

"Whoa slow down kid. Yes I'm your cousin Wally. I can't race you I'm sorry and I would love to hang out but I'm tired so not today."

"Okay." Derek said dejectedly.

"Why don't I make you both a deal? It's going to be kind of crazy for the next couple of weeks so I'm going to need a break every once in a while. So when I have some free time why don't I have a special day with both of you. We can do anything you want and it will just be me and you."

"Okay!" both kids shouted excitedly.

"Thank you Wally, you don't have to do that though. You just got home and like you said it's going to be hectic for you for awhile, so you should spend your free time how you want to." Iris said.

"That's the thing aunt Iris I WANT to spend my free time with them. I knew things were going to be different when I came home but I never expected cousins. I've always wanted siblings so this will give me a chance at that. I also want to get to know my cousins."

After that both kids proceeded to tell the adults about their day and anything else they could think of. Iris quickly fed the kids and then they moved to the living room. The twins decided they wanted to watch a movie so Iris helped them pick one while Barry made popcorn and coffee for the adults. Barry and Iris sat together on the love seat facing the couch with the twins on the floor. Wally excused himself to go put his stuff in his old room and make another phone call.

After a while Barry realized that Wally hadn't come back. He looked behind him and saw Wally standing in the doorway watching them with a sad smile on his face. Barry quickly got up and walked up to his nephew and pseudo son. He led him out to the back yard to talk.

"Tell me what's on your mind Wally."

"This was always my safe place from my parents and their fighting, I mean I haven't even thought of going to see them and I thought of you and Aunt Iris more then my own parents. I look at you and your kids and I realized what I've missed. Not just in these past 8 years but in my whole life. I mean my parents loved me but with their constant fighting it was hard to have 'family moments' like these. You know I used to wish it was you out in space and I was on Earth living my life not…..god the things we saw and did Uncle Barry, but anyways looking at you now I'm glad I went because if you had those two wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be as happy as you are."

"Wally you will always be like a son to me, but I must apologize. After seeing your and the rest of the teams reactions about what happened I realized it must have been really bad. I'm sorry Wally we had no right to place the fate of the world on kids shoulders but we did."

"Yeah you did, because it was your only option Earth needed you more than it needed us. Uncle Barry I'm always going to remember what happened. I heard Derek listing off things I would've loved to have done before I left but now they have little appeal to me."

"I've lost you haven't I Wally."

"No you haven't, I'm wary around you because I'm not sure how your going to take being with ME. Because the truth is Kid Flash is gone, he died the day you sent him into space, but I am still here. I want to be a part of your life Uncle Barry but you have to understand I've changed and its going to take me awhile to being used to being around others without my team. But I love you and I thought of you guys everyday and I don't want to lose you."

"Oh Wally you will never lose us, your OUR nephew and we know this transition back is going to be hard. But we are going to be with you every step of the way. Now I came in here to tell you that tomorrow I'm going to give you something of Barry's to wear and then go and buy you new clothes before your meeting."

"Thanks Aunt Iris, I think I'm going to bed now." With that he walked off to his room.

"What are we going to do Iris?"

"Exactly what we said, we are going to be here for him and take everything a step at a time. I also think he should talk to his parents."

"WHAT, but they kicked him out basically. They never called to see if we had any news on Wally."

"I know but they both have changed since he's been gone. This is a chance for them to reconnect. I think they all need it, they've been In a constant fight for too long and I think it'll help Wally to have their support as well as ours."

"If you think it will help them."

"Good and you and the kids are coming shopping with Wally and I."

"Actually no, this will give you a chance to reconnect with your nephew so you two just go this time and I'll catch up with him more after the meeting. I think this will be good for the both of you."

"You know I hate when you use my words against me."

"I know now why don't we get the kids to bed and go to bed ourselves."

**A/n: I'm not really sure about this chapter; I know Wally was ooc which was kind of the point. I tried to have Wally open up without giving too much away. I appreciate feedback thank you, also thanks to Sairey13 who's review I used as a rough outline for my next chapters but not exactly the same, thank you."**


	4. Chapter 4

_"Good then we will meet here tomorrow."_

*Artemis p.o.v*

I walked next to Dinah and Ollie and could see their discomfort. I looked at Ollie and knew what I had to do, no matter how much I didn't want to.

"Hey Ollie," I started as he nearly jumped out of his skin, "would you mind if I crashed at your place tonight. I mean I need to get used to being on Earth and my mother is going to smother me if I go home so maybe I could crash at your place." I knew that, now that I gave an excuse to Dinah, I had to put into terms that Ollie and his dense brain would understand.

"Let's go Ollie and now that I'm back I can show you what a REAL archer looks like and who knows maybe you can learn something."

"Hey I'm a way better archer than you."

"Sure you are Ollie but seeing as I have to go home tonight…"

"Oh no you don't your mother doesn't even know that you are back on Earth so you are coming home with me young lady so that I can show you what a real archer looks like."

"What ever you say Ollie." And with that Dinah and I walked away to the tubes laughing quietly to ourselves. I guess I could call this a win-win; I helped Ollie's conscience by staying with him and hurt his pride all in one conversation. Artemis 1 Ollie 0.

*Ollie p.o.v*

*inter monologue

Ha-ha I showed _her_, wait why do I get the sense that I just got played by a 23-24 year old.

Ah well that's as likely as Artemis and Roy having a civil conversation at any given time.

*scene skip scene skip scene skip scene skip scene skip scene skip scene skip scene skip*

*Roy P.O.V*

It was late at night and I was crashing at Ollie's when I heard him finally come home. He was talking to some girl telling her to make her self at home and that she was going to stay in her old room. This confused me but when I heard her voice I got a feeling I hadn't had since Artemis left, I didn't really hate her but I never got the chance to tell her that and who knows when or even if she will come home know. I waited until I heard two doors close and the tell tale signs of people getting into bed before I snuck off to the private shooting range Ollie had. I've always practiced when I was troubled and I practically lived in there when I first came to live with Ollie and then again when Artemis left. When I got in there I turned on the lights and then turned around I got the biggest shock of my life. There standing in front of me was none other than Artemis and then the earlier conversation I heard made a lot more sense of course that was Artemis's old room he was talking about. Of course being me the stupidest thing in the world comes out of my mouth:

"What are you doing here?" not 'how are you', 'I'm glad to see you', hell not even 'I'm glad you're not dead' no 'what are you doing here' idiot. Instead of commenting with an Artemis style retort she just kept staring at me as if looking into my soul.

"Roy, it's good to see you, you've changed."

"Yeah you have too. How long have you been on Earth?"

"Less then a quartil."

"A what?"

"Oh sorry about 19-20 hours, I'm still getting used to Earth time."

"That's understandable; just how many languages do you speak?"

"About 4 but their names can't really be translated into any Earth language. Everyone on the team speaks multiple other worldly languages, Nightwing, well robin to you; knows the most at like 7-8 though."

"He's changed huh; well I guess you all have."

"Yeah but not as much as nightwing, he…a lot happened while we were gone. And judging by the look on your face I'm going to guess you want to know why I'm acting like this instead of the way you remember. Well I'm still human but I developed empathy, I don't have a meta-gene though so I'm completely human we aren't really sure how I got it."

"Well that explains why you're acting like this yet, as far as I know, Ollie hasn't had a heart attack." He smirked at her and she smirked back.

"Yeah well I managed to get one up on Ollie and make it so his pride wasn't hurt." There was a silence where Artemis and Roy just seemed to look at each other as if trying to replace the old memories of them with the new.

"Things are really different know Roy, I'm, and we're not the kids that got on that ship 8 years ago. Your friends are gone I'm sorry."

"Well I guess I'll just have to make friends with the new versions of you guys. Why do I have a feeling like everything is going to change now?"

**I REALLY really HATE using p.o.v changes. I'll do it every once in a while but never as often as this in a chapter but it fits so yeah. I'm working on like 4 chapters at once right now but my computers an idiot and decided to shut down when I had 3 different stories up all about 6 pages and I can't remember anything from them. I think I'm going to do another Artemis scene plus since its not 'I have this' 'I have that' constantly in my house, I hate the beginning of the school year, I will have more time to write.**


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